Budget 2023: 5G Innovation Gets A Push, 100 Labs To Be Established

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had quite a few announcements on the technology front, including a push for 5G innovation during the Budget 2023 presentation on Wednesday.

During her Budget 2023 address in the parliament, the FM announced 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services would be set up in engineering institutions across the country. She said that this would bring forth new range of opportunities, business models and employment potential.

“The labs will cover, among others applications, (areas) such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems and healthcare applications,” she said.

A report by NASSCOM and Arthur D Little in 2022 had said that 5G could contribute up to 2 per cent (USD 180 billion) of India’s GDP by 2030.

Commenting on the Budget announcement, Gaurav Gandhi, founder and CEO at Echelon Edge Pvt Ltd, said, "The 5G ecosystem in India will get further stimulus from this budget. 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services are to be set up in engineering institutions. These labs will effectively develop 5G services to be implemented in a variety of fields. This holds some potential for private 5G deployment in these institutions and further growth of private networks for research purposes.”

He also added that the labs would help the telecom sector which has been at the center of mobile telephony distribution in India.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have been leading India’s efforts to avail 5G services to its citizens. Both the companies have increased their pace of 5G services deployment across the length and breadth of the country.

A report by Techarc says that over 25 per cent of India’s population has already been covered by 5G as of 25 January, 2023. This 25 per cent of the population lives across 189 locations in India.

According to an Ericsson report, 5G is projected to account for nearly 53 per cent of mobile subscriptions in India (690 million) by the end of 2028.